How_to_use_this_template
📖 How to use this template
A timesheet that lives on the work instead of in a spreadsheet. Each task is one piece of client work with an Estimate on it; the hours get logged against that task with Quire's time tracking, so the timesheet writes itself as the work happens. One section per client or workstream, plus an Internal section so utilization stays honest.
The sample is a four-person studio over two weeks: a billable website rebuild, a fixed-fee mobile app, and the internal time (meetings, training, sales, hiring) that a 40-hour week actually contains. 21 tasks, 40 time logs, one invoice already sent.
- Duplicate this project into your own organization (dropdown next to the project name, then
Duplicate) - Rename the three sections to your clients or workstreams. Delete the sample tasks and add one task per piece of work, with an Estimate set from the quote or the SOW
- Set Billable, Hourly Rate, Week and Logging Method when the task enters In progress
- Log hours on the task as you go: the timer for real-time logging, or a manual log at the end of the day or week. Variance and Billable Total calculate on their own
- Friday: move finished tasks to Submitted, review them, move the good ones to Approved, invoice, then mark the billable ones Invoiced
The fields
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Estimate | Quire's built-in estimate. The hours the quote or SOW allowed for this task |
| Time spent | Quire's built-in time log total. Every log carries who, when, and a note |
| Variance | Time spent minus Estimate. Formula (timeSpent - estimated). Positive means the task ran over |
| Billable | Whether these hours go on an invoice. Rework and internal time are logged but not billed |
| Hourly Rate | The rate for this task. Set per task because the same person bills differently per client |
| Billable Total | Time spent times Hourly Rate, zero when Billable is off. Formula. Sum it in Table view for the invoice |
| Week | Which week's timesheet this belongs to, so one filter shows one week |
| Logging Method | How the hours were captured: real-time timer, daily timesheet, weekly timesheet, or automatic. The method you pick decides how much to trust the number |
Status is the approval chain
Not started → In progress → Submitted → Approved → Invoiced, plus Rejected for hours the reviewer sends back.
Submitted means the person doing the work says it is done and logged. Approved means someone else has looked at Variance and agrees the hours are right. Nothing gets invoiced without both.
The four logging methods
| Method | Best for | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time timer | Billable work where every quarter hour matters | Someone always forgets to stop it |
| Daily timesheet | Internal teams that need decent data, not invoices | Five minutes a day, and honest recall |
| Weekly timesheet | Low-variance work with stable routines | Friday memory rounds to the nearest half day |
| Automatic | Solo work and sampling | Trust, because it reads activity rather than intent |
Pick one method per client and hold the whole team to it. Mixed methods produce numbers that look comparable and are not, which is worse than no data.
Tags
Billable, Non-billable, Overtime, Rework. Overtime marks hours after the normal day so the Friday review can see who is carrying the late nights. Rework marks hours spent fixing something already billed; it is logged against the original estimate and never invoiced twice.
Friday review
Filter Table view to this week, group by assignee, and read three things: each person's total against 40, the billable share of that total, and every row where Variance is more than two hours. An estimate that was wrong is useful; an estimate that was wrong and nobody noticed is the one that sinks the next quote.
Then sum Billable Total per client section. That number is the invoice, and the Invoice sublist is where those tasks go so the invoice has a paper trail. The Awaiting approval sublist holds everything in Submitted until the review.
Reading it
Switch to Table view. Group by assignee for utilization, by section for the client view, by Week for the timesheet itself. Sort by Variance to find the estimates that need fixing before the next quote.
Adapting it
Fixed-fee clients still get an Estimate and logged hours, with Billable on and Hourly Rate set to the rate the fee was priced at. Invoice the agreed fee, then compare it with the summed Billable Total: that is how you find out whether the fee was right.
A single freelancer deletes the Internal section's team tasks and keeps the Friday review. A larger agency adds one section per client and one Invoice sublist per month instead of per week.
If the team will not log in real time, do not fight it: pick the daily timesheet, put a repeating 4:55 pm task in each person's week, and accept data that is 90% right over a timer nobody runs.